A Saint's Redemption
by HeartWritingM
Summary: Johnny's left the Saints, and Ljubica thinks she knows how to get him back. But when someone betrays them, will she ever find Johnny again?
1. The End of the Beginning

AN - Well now. I wrote pretty much all this months ago, right after Devastation ended, then hit a rut and fell off the horse. Finally got back on it, though :p

CHAPTER ONE

The End of the Beginning

_You ruined the Saints!_

Ljubica had been hearing that in her head almost non-stop since Johnny left.

_Has he been feeling that way since the bank robbery?_ she wondered, slumping into her office chair at Purgatory and pulling the hood of her harlequin purple hoody over her head, shrouding her face.

_The Saints' name used to mean somethin' more than body spray and some ass-tastin' energy drink._

Ljubica sighed. _Maybe he was right. Maybe I _had_ ruined the Saints. Today they were a far cry from the street gang I joined in 2006. I always told myself I would never be like Julius, leading from the rear where it was safe. But had he been right? Had I craved money and power so much that nothing else mattered?_

There was a knock at the door. "Come in…"

Lin walked in, wearing harlequin purple track pants, white stripe up the side, and a black hoody. The heat was out at Purgatory, and she was pretending to be cold like everyone else. In truth, the vampire barely noticed, but they were trying to keep that part under wraps. There were very few people left in the Saints that remembered Lin, but it was best if nobody knew.

"Lju, you've been in here for days," she said, face gentle.

Ljubica shrugged. "Gang is running fine without me, _da?_"

Lin shook her head. "Not really. The boys and girls aren't happy their leader is mopin' in her rooms all damned day. Neither am I. You gotta pull your head outta your ass."

"Why?" Ljubica asked irritably. "So I can be fucking something else up?"

"You're not yourself right now and need to work through some shit, I get it," the other woman replied. "But this ain't you and your crew needs their Boss at her _best_, even if she's fakin' it."

Ljubica frowned, readying a scathing come back, but deep down, she agreed. "You're right. Fuck."

Lin quirked a wry smile. "Of course I'm right. You gonna come out and say hi? Maybe take a shower first?"

I nodded. "Thanks, Lin. I was needing that kick in my ass."

"I know. Look, sun's almost up, I gotta go crash."

And with that, Lin left, leaving the door open. After a few moments, Ljubica groaned and got up, following her out and heading down the hall to her bedroom and it's wonderful tub.

#

Ljubica climbed into the steaming, bubbly water, sighing as delicious warmth enveloped her still-battered body. Anton Arensky's _Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, op. 32 _played softly from speakers built into walls, and she took time to really think things through.

_Johnny _was_ right. I had fucked up the Saints really well. We were big, but in the wrong sort of way. No more movie deals, no more energy drinks, no more fucking _Ultor_. Ultor had tried to kill us, and what did I do? Struck a deal with their CEO to form the Saints-Ultor Media Group. All for fucking money._

Ljubica blinked when she realized Kanye West's _POWER_ was almost over and the water was now only warm vs hot. She must have dozed off or spent a lot of time day dreaming. But such was the nature of bathing for her.

'_You got the power to let power go?'_ Kanye's voice asked.

Ljubica chuckled. She did. She knew what she had to do.

_Saints-Ultor was ending very shortly. The first order of business today, actually. I love bath time and it's ability to help with the big decisions._

Mind made up, she got out of the tub, humming softly to herself and toweling off as a plan took shape in her head.

#

'_Mr. Gryphon, the Boss is here to see you.'_

Eric Gryphon frowned. That crazy bitch was that last person he wanted to see today, but she had a lot to answer for lately. She'd helped keep him alive a few years ago, but recently she'd been nothing but trouble and bad press.

"Send her in," he grumbled, leaning back in his overstuffed office chair, large, curved slab of granite that served as his desk stretching out wide and long. "Damn it."

Ljubica pushed open the doors to his office, finding him scowling at her from his nice, comfy chair. She wore black jeans, a purple hoody, and her long, black hair was up in a bun held in place with two bright, violet hair sticks, bangs splayed across her forehead.

"Payment for damage to the Philips Building is coming out of the Saints portion of the operation," Gryphon said bitterly. "You're lucky that little airplane stunt you pulled didn't bring it all down! And the chemicals you stole from our warehouse. I don't even want to know what that was for, but you're reimbursing us for it and the damages. _And_ the families of the men you killed."

"I want you to be donating _all_ of Saints assets to charity and be dissolving Saints-Ultor Media Group," Ljubica told him matter-of-factly, completely ignoring everything he'd said. "We are done."

The CEO of Ultor laughed at her. "That's not how this works, _Boss._ I thought we had an understanding…"

"I am not here to be comedian for you," Ljubica growled.

"The Saints are worth _billions_, far more than the damage you cause. This discussion is over."

Narrowing her eyes, Ljubica pulled her Shepherd and leapt over his desk, scattering papers as she slid across it and jamming the large, purple pistol into his face.

"Donate. All. _Assets_," she hissed venomously. _Johnny will come back if I make us _real_ Saints again._

"Th-that's not how this works…" Gryphon stammered, subtly thumbing a button on the underside of the desk. The woman's reputation preceded her; she'd killed the previous CEO in this very office. "There's paperwork, contracts…"

"Fuck contracts," Ljubica growled, shoving her Shepherd into his cheek. "You are ending shit _now_, asshole. Before I am splattering you all over nice pretty office._"_

A squad of heavily armed, orange-suited Masako with black body armor and helmets stormed into the room, sleek SR-50 XMAC assault rifles trained on the leader of the Saints. _"Drop the weapon, miss!_"

Ljubica chuckled darkly. "Nancy boy can't be fighting his own fights, hmm?"

But she didn't move an inch. Behind her, the sound of bolts being worked told her she was possibly about to die. But she was used to the feeling.

"If I die, so does he," she called over her shoulder, then her voice took on a dramatic air. "Little twitch of finger, and _boom_. His very _expensive_ brains all over floor. Desk. Windows. Papers. You are getting idea, _da?_"

"Sir?" one of the masked bodyguards asked.

Eric Gryphon faintly nodded, swallowing. There was a sharp, high-pitched whine, and a flash of light and electricity. Both he and Ljubica collapsed as the stun grenade went off, and the nearest bodyguard quickly grabbed the woman and flung her several yards away.

Ljubica bounced and tumbled as she landed, rolling to a stop. Then she groaned, already starting to recover and climb to her feet. Batting a loose lock of hair out of her eyes, she was faced with a semicircle of men armed with assault rifles. Her Shepherd was out of reach, and she glared balefully at the CEO of Ultor, purple eyes full of anger and hatred.

"You're going to fucking pay for this, Gryphon," she promised.

"And you're going to regret when we take the Saints away from you, _Boss_," he sneered. "We own the copyright and trademarks to the Saints, the fluer-de-lis logo, the shade of 'harlequin purple,' or the color so fondly thought of as _Saints_ Purple, and pretty much everything else tied to your _former_ gang. Is there anything else?"

"You have made a powerful enemy today," Ljubica spat, and at a nod from Gryphon, the Masako escorted her from the room.

"Have fun dear," he said derisively, keying the button on his phone that called his secretary. "Elaine, hold all my calls for the next couple hours, I need to take care of some things without interruption."

#

Ljubica stormed through Purgatory. Lin and Nyte Blayde were asleep for the day, Carlos was avoiding her, and Oleg was probably with Kinzie. She strode down the stairs to the bottom level, before the actual basement area, and then turned to where the former FBI agent had set up her Inner Sanctum in Stilwater. At the door, she paused, peering into a retina scanner.

A computerized, feminine voice greeted her. '_Identification confirmed. Welcome, Boss.'_

A pair of doors swished open into the walls, and Ljubica stalked through the outer chamber and into the inner. Oleg wasn't here after-all.

"Kinzie, I am needing you to be doing something."

The redhead looked up from her computer monitors, scowling. "I wasn't doing anything important at _all_," she griped. "What?"

"Not now, _suka_," Ljubica growled. "I want you to be donating all Saints-Ultor assets and bank accounts to charity."

"You… no. You're joking, right?" Kinzie spluttered. "Are you high on something, Boss?"

Ljubica shook her head. "_Nyet,_ but Saints need to be Saints again, not this corporate shit. Do it, Kinzie. Only keep legitimate _thug_ businesses; drugs, women, guns, that kind of thing. We'll make more money from them and stores we are owning, but anything earned from Saints-Ultor Media Group, I want _gone_. Are you getting me, _mousey one_?"

Kinzie frowned. She hated hearing Oleg's nickname for her come from someone else, but she only nodded, swallowing the scathing retort. "Give me some time, but I'll make it happen."

Ljubica grinned. "You are making me happy woman, Kinzie!"

"And a much poorer one," the hacker shot back. "But we'll make more, I guess, right?"

"Is good spirit!" Ljubica cooed, then left the puzzled woman to her work.

#

"Now, I am not feeling like C4 today…" Ljubica mused to herself. "This is always being hardest part for me… Balancing explosive firepower with personal enjoyment."

She felt a lump in her throat as she realized what she was doing. She missed Johnny, missed him terribly. Which is why she was doing all this, to make him come back, and maybe even forgive her.

She looked over the table in front of her, weapons and explosives from edge to edge, when she spotted the keys to her Vulture. She snatched them up immediately.

"Ooh," she drawled happily. "_Da_ I am feeling this!"

#

Eric Gryphon sat at his computer, checking accounts and numbers. The stock was up, but there was an alert in his Inbox about a sudden fluctuation of profit in the Saints-Ultor Media Group. His eyes widened when he saw what was happening.

"That bitch!" he roared, thumping a fist onto the desk and scattering papers.

On the other side of town, Kinzie was giving all their money away to orphanages, schools, universities, museums, even the NAACP. Everyone was getting a large slice of the Saints-Ultor pie.

As he reached for the phone, he heard a heavy whumping from outside. Curious, he turned around to see a large, purple Vulture hovering outside his window. It was the newer model, not the older one Ultor's Masako used.

Of course, the Masako didn't fly purple helicopters, either.

"_Hello, asshole,_" Ljubica growled from the cockpit, voice booming from the helicopter's external speakers. "_You should have listened when I was giving you chance!_"

She squeezed the trigger on her control stick and the Vulture's auto cannon fired, the quick thumping vibrating the troop transport's heavy frame. 20mm armor piercing and high explosive rounds shattered glass and then punched into Eric Gryphon's body, tearing huge chunks of flesh and limbs off of him on their way through, splashing blood and gore all over the floor and walls behind him.

Not satisfied, Ljubica armed the rocket packs underslung beneath each stubby wing, and opened fire on the top floors of the Phillips Building. Rockets streamed away from the attack chopper one after the other, over and over in a torrent of righteous fire upon on her enemy until the packs were empty.

Explosions ripped through the upper levels of the skyscraper. Flames, chunks of concrete, twisted beams of steel, and shards of glass tore through the office and the three levels below it. As the dust cleared, Ljubica worked the controls, pivoting the helicopter around for a better view through the smoke and flames.

"Well, that is being that," she said thoughtfully, then worked the controls and headed in the direction of Purgatory.

#

'_A possible terrorist bombing has blown up the uppermost levels of the Phillips Building in Stilwater,'_ Jane Valderrama said from the massive flat panel on the wall of the main room in the Saints Row condo. _'As we know more about this breaking story, _you'll_ know more. Stay tuned to Channel 6 for the latest updates.'_

Ljubica scoffed, rolling her eyes and changing the channel. "I am not being terrorist, there is no _holy war_ here."

Her phone rang, and Pierce's face was on the screen when she looked at it. With a sigh, she picked it up and answered, setting aside her bottle of beer. "_Da?"_

'_Boss, what the fuck is happening in Stilwater?'_ he asked earnestly.

"Oh, is nothing, Pierce, we are just being through with Ultor is all," she answered, voice almost casual. "You may want to start using different bank card."

'_What!?'_ he shrieked. _'You shittin' me woman!?'_

"Pierce, calm down. Saints are being better off this way. How's Steelport?"

'_Oh just great,'_ he drawled bitterly. '_Just fuckin' peachy.'_

Ljubica sighed softly. Pierce had taken their celebrity status to heart the quickest, and did most of the advertising appearances. Which reminded her…

"Pierce, be closing all Planet Saints and raze them to fucking ground."

'_Fuck are you on?"_ he nearly screeched. '_Boss, no! We were about to expand to Stilwater, cover the home turf-…'_

"_Gone_, Pierce," she growled, interrupting him. "_All of them, Pierce."_

'_But…'_

"Pierce, I am getting angry," Ljubica warned, her tone growing edgier. A few Saints nearby eased away from the couch she occupied. When the Boss got angry, there were usually gunshots and explosions involved.

'_Boss, look, I have to call you back,' _he told her suddenly, and hung up.

"Motherfucker," she grumbled, tossing her phone down with a clatter. A few more saints edged away, trying very hard to not look her way. Ljubica snatched up her Steelport Steel Reserve and took a long drink, leveling a smoldering gaze around the room. Her mood was suddenly sour, and she wanted an excuse to hurt someone.

Ljubica's phone beeped. Glancing at it, there was a message from Kinzie.

_Everything is taken care of. Reserves will be low for awhile until we recoup the losses, but I have a few surprises crawling around cyberspace that will pad our income for awhile. - Kinz_

"At least something is going right," Ljubica mumbled. She noted the time as she was setting the phone down again, and instead stood up, heading for the lower levels. It was dark out, now, and someone was waking up.


	2. Lost & Found

AN - Stupid horse. A lot's been going on, blah blah blah, but here's more Redemption. To anyone following Begins, I haven't forgotten about it! Ch11 coming soon!

CHAPTER TWO

Lost & Found

Ljubica sighed softly as Lin pulled her teeth away, sagging back against the wall. The vampire licked gently at the wounds to close them, and then stepped back, looking into the other woman's glazed-over eyes. The hallway they were in was empty; most Saints tended to avoid the deeper parts of the Purgatory since clearing out the zombies.

"Thanks," Lin said, grinning lopsidedly. She was already starting to feel the effects of the alcohol in Ljubica's blood.

The Russian woman shrugged, adjusting her hoody to cover her shoulder once more and doing her best to ignore the pit of fear in her gut. She'd done all sorts of drugs in her life, but this was the most potent thing she'd ever experienced and she worried it was becoming an addiction. "I should be thanking you, is better than any drug."

"Uh huh. Likewise."

They both stood in silence for a moment. Ljubica broke it first.

"Am I doing right thing?" she asked.

"You're the Boss, right?" Lin retorted. "Your gang, you run it how you want. I think assassinating the CEO of a major corporation with an attack chopper was a littleextreme, but it's how you tend to do things."

Ljubica shook her head. "Is not what I was meaning. Us. _This_."

"Oh."

Ljubica nodded.

"It make you uncomfortable?" Lin asked. "'Cuz don't tell me you don't like it."

"I do like it, but…"

"Then what's the problem?"

"Johnny," Ljubica said warily.

"Johnny made his decision," Lin shot back. "He ain't here and _I am_."

"Is not so simple, Lin," Ljubica told her. "I-…"

"You love too many people, but can't… no _won't_ make a decision. How do you think Carlos feels? He ain't got closure, either."

Ljubica didn't offer a response, instead just shoving her way past and heading for the stairs.

#

From the top of a grain silo along a lonely stretch of highway in the American Midwest, Johnny Gat peered through the scope of a 'borrowed' McManus, a 2015 model with a suppressor, bipod, and extended barrel and magazine. It had a night vision scope for the sliver of moon overhead.

The dark shape of the Bulldog carrying his target came into view, and he fired.

A single 50 caliber bullet crashed through the windshield, went through the driver's head with a spray of blood and chips of bone, and then punched through the seat and into the chest of the lady Saint behind him. The Bulldog swerved violently, nearly rolling as it careened to a stop on the shoulder of the highway.

Johnny worked the bolt of the rifle, sighting in on the last Saint guard, a husky man in a purple jersey and backwards baseball cap. The McManus bucked in his hands again, and the Saint crumpled to the ground. As a woman climbed out of the vehicle, he fired again at her feet, sending up a spray of concrete, and she stopped moving.

Johnny slung the rifle onto his back and used a pipe as a fire pole, sliding down to the ground and trotting towards the road.

"My hero," Tera said dryly as he ran up, looking him up and down. "Seems my work is in good shape. She didn't send you, though; you wouldn't have killed them."

"It's your lucky night, Tera," Johnny said with a grin. "Come on, let's talk."

#

Ljubica groaned as she rolled over, snatching her incessantly ringing phone from the night stand and noting the time. "Kinzie, I am on second hour of sleep… this had better be good…"

_'Boss, I think I found him," _Kinzie's voice said from her phone.

Ljubica felt alert immediately, and hopeful, but wouldn't let herself get too eager. She kicked her legs over the side of the bed and started tugging on a pair of black jeans, cradling the phone to her ear with her shoulder. "Go on..."

_'Tera's transport never checked in. Turns out it was hit hard and fast a few hours ago. All our escort was killed, and she's gone. I'm tracking her anklet right now. Oleg and I think it was Johnny, he'd need Tera to make him more serum..."_

"I think you are being right, Kinzie," Ljubica told her as she stood up, zipping up her pants and walking towards the closet. "Where are they heading?"

_'Steelport is the only place to get that chemical they need. Ultor doesn't make it anywhere else in the country.'_

"Good work," Ljubica told her. "Send me regular updates on their location."

She tucked her phone in the back pocket of her jeans, frowning as she pulled a purple hoody on.

_Tera is a beautiful woman. Smart, ambitious..._

Ljubica clenched a fist. _I have no right being jealous of anything Johnny is doing, or with who. He is a grown man and made it very clear he doesn't want anything to do with me._

Then an idea hit her, chilling and troubling. _Tera Patrick is also a manipulative, treacherous whore..._

Ljubica snatched her phone back out of her pocket and dialed Kinzie. The hacker picked up just at the second ring. '_What!?'_

"I need their location. _Now_, Kinzie. Is very important we are finding Johnny as soon as possible."

#

Johnny sighed as he slipped the needle from his forearm. Setting the syringe aside, he applied pressure and held the arm over his head while waiting for the bleeding to stop. Tera stood next to him, their backs to the queen-sized bed in the motel room they'd gotten in a bad part of town.

"All better?" Tera asked, trailing a finger across his shoulder.

"All better," he agreed. "So, I need a lot of this stuff made in short order."

"I adjusted the formula," she told him, smirking faintly. "It'll last a lot longer, now."

"And without a computer?" he asked, wrapping a bandage around the puncture wound. "Beauty and brains, I like it."

Tera didn't smile, instead coming around behind him and rubbing a hand across his chest. "You can always show me how… _appreciative_ you are, Johnny," she purred.

"Can I take a shower first?" he asked, grinning lopsidedly.

"Take all the time in the world," she replied, hiding a dark smile as he headed for the bathroom. She just needed him distracted. As soon as the door closed, she went to the phone. She _didn't_ have much time, Kinzie's anklet would make sure of that. And so she planned to make the most of the time she had before that psychotic Russian showed up.

By then it would be too late.

#

"Lin, I am needing you to be staying here," Ljubica said hastily, loading a duffel on her bed with extra magazines for her D3TH Blossom and Shepherd. Anything else she could get in Steelport.

"And I ain't lettin' you go all by yourself," Lin growled, low and hot. "No way. You know there's gonna be a trap involved."

Ljubica shook her head. "Sunrise is soon and you will be slowing me down."

Lin punched a hole in the concrete wall next to her, eyes blazing. "You let me worry about the damned sun!"

Ljubica narrowed her eyes at the display of rage. Lin had been having trouble with her anger lately. The vampire suddenly looked down at her still-clenched fist, then glanced at the damage she'd caused.

"Lju…" she murmured. "I…"

Ljubica shook her head. "Save it. You are staying _here_, I will be bringing him back, is no trouble at all. You're in charge while I am gone, so fucking control yourself or I will leave Oleg with it instead."

"I should be going _with_ you."

Ljubica sighed. "But you are not. _Da_?"

Lin rolled her eyes. "_Da…"_

"Good."

"Boss?" Carlos asked from the doorway. He was wearing black sweats with purple trim, and his ever-present purple beanie. He looked uncertain.

"Doesn't anybody knock in this place?" Lin asked irritably, but Ljubica shook her head and zipped the duffel bag closed. She pulled on a black, purple and white Mamba leather jacket, shouldered the bag, and headed for the door.

"Nice to see you, Carlos," the Russian woman said gently. "But I am heading for Steelport right now, we found Johnny."

"Take him with you," Lin offered. "The sun doesn't hurt him right now."

"Right now," Carlos retorted bitterly. He clearly still harbored resentment over being force-fed human blood, and what it had possibly cost him. Now he found that he craved it, and worried that it was only a matter of time before he gave in to the urges.

"I am not having time for this, Carlos," Ljubica grumbled, not wanting to spend hours alone with the brooding undead. "Get out of my way."

Carlos defiantly stood his ground, glowering down at the smaller woman, but after a few moments sighed and stepped out of the way. "We're having a long talk when you get back, though, _niña_."

"Fine," Ljubica shot back. "By the way, Lin is being in charge while I am gone, Carlos."

"So who do we take orders from while the sun is up?" he asked sardonically.

"Fuck you, that's who, 'Los," Lin growled, irises slowly fading from brown to purple. "Any other stupid questions?"

"Children," Ljubica quipped as Carlos took a step forward. "Be nice while I'm gone."

"Sorry, Boss," Carlos mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "I… yeah. And Lin. Just being fussy I guess."

"Whatever," Lin huffed, crossing her arms. "I still don't like this."

Ljubica walked back into the room and gave Lin a quick kiss on the cheek, then looked into her eyes, which was easy since they were pretty much the same height. "I'll be back soon enough, promise."

Lin finally quirked a wry smile, nodding. She'd accepted how things would be, and so she was done bitching. "I won't pout while you're gone."

Ljubica headed for the door, stopping to give Carlos a quick hug. "You be safe, too," she said quickly. "And we will be having talk, do not let me be forgetting."

Carlos nodded. "Believe me, I won't."

#

Ljubica swerved her way through the traffic around Steelport's highways, gritting her teeth each time someone pulled out in front of her. It was a short flight, but the sun was coming up, and rush hour was going to be soon. She had to get off the highway before it came to a crawl. Her purple Attrazione responded eagerly to her control, engine screaming to the redline before she shifted again.

Overhead, an electronic sign over the freeway advised 'PLEASE DRIVE SAFELY' across it's display, before cycling to the number for roadside assistance.

"Kinzie, are they still there?" Ljubica asked harshly, cutting the wheel and flooring it. Several other drives honked as she roared past.

'_Her anklet is showing her to still be at that motel, unless she figured out a way to take it off without blowing herself up,'_ Kinzie replied, annoyed. '_And she didn't, because that whore can't hack me.'_

Ljubica chuckled. "There there, Kinzie, I killed only person that could get drop on you from time to time."

'_That sleazoid cheated half the time!'_ the hacker insisted. '_And the other half he got lucky!'_

"_Da, da_," Ljubica agreed absent-mindedly. "I am almost to exit, according to GPS, Kinz, I'll have to be calling you back."

Ljubica clicked the button on the headset that would end the call and took the exit towards Henry Steel Mills. That was where Kinzie had traced them, to a sleazy dump of a motel in a bad neighborhood.

"I'm coming, Johnny."

#

The door to the room was suddenly and violently flung open, frame shattering by the knob, and Tera looked up as it bounced off the wall, shockingly still on it's hinges. Ljubica strode into the room like a raging storm, lightning in her eyes and thunder on her brow.

"Where is Johnny?" the unstable woman growled dangerously, looking around. "Johnny! Be coming out!"

"He's not here," Terra purred, something in her voice betraying there was more to the story than that.

"Where is he, _suka_?" Ljubica hissed. It was taking all her restraint to not kill the woman in front of her with only her hands, let alone not reach for her Shepherd.

"You almost seem like you care," Tera shot back, tattooed arm bent at the elbow and hand on her hip. "Of course, if you did, he wouldn't have come looking for _me_…"

Ljubica took a deep, steadying breath. "You will be telling me where he is, or I will be killing you, is being simple as that."

Tera laughed, a bitter, bitchy sound. She was told to delay the Boss as long as possible and had an idea. "How long have you been in this country? And you _still_ talk like a half-wit?"

Ljubica finally pulled her Shepherd and aimed it at the other woman's chest. "I will not miss from this close, sweetie."

Tera's eyes widened slightly, lips parting ever so much in surprise. The woman before her had just used much better English.

"Oh?" Ljubica asked, sounding amused as she noted the other woman's look. "Yes, my English is actually perfectly fine. Do you really think I could live in this country surrounded by all the television, radio, movie, and billboard advertisements for so many years and _not_ learn the language?"

"Well… I mean…"

Ljubica chuckled darkly. "It suits me to have my enemies think I am just some dumb foreigner. I will take every advantage I can and use it to crush them."

"Oh, you clever Russians," Tera admitted, smirking. "Remind me not to attack you in winter, too."

"Last chance," Ljubica told her sharply. "Where. Is. Johnny!?"

"I gave _Joonie_ to the Russian mob," Tera told her boldly, hand slowly reaching towards the headboard and the pistol she had taped behind it. The surprise on the Boss' face told her she probably wouldn't be noticed, and so she pressed further. "You shouldn't have let that one go, he's _real_ good in be-…"

Ljubica squeezed the trigger once, a .45 caliber bullet punching into Tera's stomach. The microbiologist staggered back into the wall as her knees gave out, and she collapsed against it, sliding down and leaving a trail of blood.

"Wh-what?" Tera stammered, fear flooding through her. It never occurred to her she'd be the one shot and bleeding on the floor, despite the other woman's reputation. She'd had all the cards, home field advantage, even the element of surprise. "Y-you c-can't kill… need me t-to find hi-…"

Ljubica fired again, over and over, hot chunks of lead hammering into the Asian woman's body like the fist of an angry god. But this was a pistol the Russian woman was intimately familiar with, and her anger was cold, controlled and calculating at the moment; the last bullet took off the top of Tera's head, blood, chips of bone, and other things spattering the wall with gore.

Ljubica fell to sit on the edge of the bed, arms flopping down at her side as she sagged. "Johnny…"

Only silence answered her. The smell of burnt cordite seared at her nostrils, a cloud of it hanging thick in the air. Someone had probably already called the police, and she couldn't find Johnny from inside a jail cell.

Ljubica nodded, got up, and plucked her phone out of her back pocket as she headed for the door. Before she could call Kinzie, and unknown number appeared.

"Hello?" Ljubica asked warily. A man's voice, thick with a slavic accent, started talking.

'_If you want to see your American friend again, you will pay your debts to us with much interest.'_

Ljubica felt her lip curl in a snarl, blood boiling as someone dared to take from her, to steal what was hers.. "I am not knowing who you are. But I can tell you right now is not time; I am not having lots of money anymore. But what I am having is special set of skills gained over lifetime of killing. Set of skills that is making me nightmare for assholes like you. You can be giving Johnny back and this will all be over. But if you don't, if you choose to be continuing this, I will be stopping at nothing to get him back. I will find you, and I will kill you."

There was silence for a few moments, then the man said two words before hanging up.

'_Good luck.'_

Ljubica took a deep, cleansing breath instead of hurling her phone against the wall with a shriek, releasing it shakily before dialing Kinzie. The former FBI agent answered on the first ring.

'_Yeah, Boss?'_

"Kinzie, be tracking every flight that has left country in past twenty four hours, or leaving soon," she told her Lieutenant heatedly, slipping easily back into her 'disguise'. "Be on lookout for flights that are heading to eastern Europe. Be finding shady flights especially, ones that are not quite making sense."

'_I'm on it. But what's going on? Why would Johnny be heading to Europe?'_ the hacker asked warily.

"He was taken," Ljubica growled. "And I intend to find him if it means ripping Europe apart."


End file.
